A draw in the clash of frontrunners

Tan Zhongyi has managed to keep the sole lead between the very first round and the halfway mark (after round 7) in the Women’s Candidates Tournament. On Thursday, the Chinese GM faced top seed Aleksandra Goryachkina, who remains undefeated in sole second place, a half point behind the leader. Tan had the black pieces, and the game ended in a 40-move draw.

Standing a half point behind Goryachkina are Kateryna Lagno and now Lei Tingjie. Lei lost her first-round encounter against Tan, drew all her games between round 2 and round 5 and then scored back-to-back wins over Nurgyul Salimova and Vaishali R. In her victory over Vaishali, Lei out-calculated her Indian opponent out of a double-edged Italian Opening.

No player in the women’s tournament finished the first half with a fifty-percent score. Salimova stands in fifth place with 3/7 points, while Vaishali is sharing last place with Humpy Koneru and Anna Muzychuk, each with 2½/7 points.

In the first seven rounds, Tan played four games with the black pieces, while Goryachkina, her closest chaser, played four games with the white pieces.

Results - Round 7

Master Class Vol.16 - Judit Polgar

In this video course, experts (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) examine the games of Judit Polgar. Let them show you which openings Polgar chose to play, where her strength in middlegames were, or how she outplayed her opponents in the endgame.

Aleksandra Goryachkina

Aleksandra Goryachkina | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

Lei 1 - 0 Vaishali

Analysis by André Schulz

Understanding Material Imbalances

This DVD focuses on several types of material imbalances, such as Rook vs 2 Pieces, Queen vs 2 Rooks, and Queen vs Pieces.

Lei Tingjie, Vaishali Rameshbabu

Lei Tingjie facing Vaishali Rameshbabu | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

Expert analysis by WIM Svitlana Demchenko

More photos from round 7

Tan Zhongyi

Sole leader Tan Zhongyi signing autographs | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

Anastasiya Karlovich, Anna Muzychuk

Anna Muzychuk sharing a laugh with well-known commentator and photographer Anastasiya Karlovich | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

Making the right decisions in chess - Fundamentals

In a total of 6 chapters, we look at the following aspects: the right decision based on tactical factors, decisions in exchanges and moves, complex and psychological decisions in longer games and in defence.

Kateryna Lagno, Nurgyul Salimova

Kateryna Lagno v. Nurgyul Salimova | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

Candidates Chess Tournament 2024

The playing hall in Toronto | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

Standings after round 7

All games

Sometimes chess is so painful...

Master advanced Tactics and Calculations like a super Grandmaster

The Indian chess grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi with an ELO of over 2700 (June 2023) is one of the best 20 players in the world. For the first time, the sympathetic top player presents himself in a video course. Let a world-class player show you tactical moti

This is what makes Vidit Gujrathi special

Watch tons of high-quality content on ChessBase India’s YouTube channel!

Links

<< Svitlana's Smart Moves - The Anti-Bird: Nh6!? against 1.f4

Endgame Magic #262 - Endgame highlights from the Bundesliga >>

Topics: Candidates 2024, Lei Tingjie

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Carlos Alberto Colodro Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.

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Women’s Candidates R5: Missed chances lead to four draws

4/10/2024 – Tan Zhongyi remains as the sole leader at the Women’s Candidates after all four games ended drawn in Tuesday’s fifth round. None of the games lasted fewer than 44 moves, though, as a number of chances were missed in hard-fought struggles. Tan has a half-point lead over Aleksandra Goryachkina, while Vaishali R, Nurgyul Salimova and Kateryna Lagno (pictured) stand a half point further back. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

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Candidates R1: High-quality, fighting draws

4/5/2024 – The much anticipated Candidates Tournament kicked off in Toronto, Canada. The open section featured four draws on the first day of action. In the all-American confrontation between Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura (who are also the top two seeds in the event), Caruana got to put pressure on his compatriot with the white pieces. A fighting draw was also seen in the battle of youngsters between Alireza Firouzja and Praggnanandhaa R. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

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Video

60m English The Elephant Gambit

The Elephant Gambit (1.e4.e5 2.Nf3 d5!?) has never really been given the attention it deserves. It is a very useful surprise weapon. Let us list the advantages of playing this particular opening: 1) Shock value 2) It is very aggressive. Black can take over the initiative early. 3) Many tricky lines 4) Unorthodox. Black is basically taking the game to the opponent as early as move two. Not many openings do that! It's a perfect opening for young players and club players to adopt. Let Andrew Martin select a repertoire for you on this 60 mins, which, if used with discretion, will rack up the points. I am sure that you will enjoy this unusual tour of the Elephant Gambit.

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